This August, Refugee Council supporter Flora will set off on the bike ride of a lifetime, as she aims to cycle 100 miles for refugees in the Prudential Ride London event. Wondering what’s possessed her to cycle wheely quite far? Flora shares her inspiration with us.

The driving force for me to do Ride London is my personal experience of meeting Syrian refugees in Lebanon last year.  On my trip to this beautiful country I met and have stayed friends with someone who had fled Syria, I met many others and saw Syrian children and mothers begging on the streets. 

There are over a million Syrian refugees in Lebanon now, and almost 4 million in total outside Syria. 

When I got back to the UK I looked at what we were doing to support them, I discovered that we have accepted fewer than 200 refugees from Syria since the conflict began and I felt ashamed. 

Since then I have been doing all I can to support campaigns to resettle refugees in the UK and finding out more about how refugees from all countries are treated here. 

The Refugee Council leads the way in standing up for refugees and I want to support them. 

I’ve never ridden this far before and never taken part in a competitive sports event so this will be a first for me. This is a family affair, as my sister is riding in the race too, and we are training together.  We’re aiming to raise £1400.

Support Flora: https://www.justgiving.com/Flora-Bain  

Read about her training adventures: https://wheelyquitefar.wordpress.com